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The binance article is confusing. It says transactions can be reordered, but not reversed. The reality is that someone in control of 51 pc can change the histor

The binance article is confusing. It says transactions can be reordered, but not reversed. The reality is that someone in control of 51 pc can change the history (because that is what is required to reorder transactions) .

colordrops 6y ago
You are just going to state something that is blatantly false without any evidence or references? The nature of 51% attacks is pretty well known among the cryptocurrency community, and it's not hard to understand the technical aspects of it. You can't rewrite history because you don't have the private keys to the wallets you want to steal coins from. It's impossible. You can only affect transactions around the time of the attack. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Weaknesses#Attacker_has_a_lot_of_computing_power https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Weaknesses#Attacker_has_a_lot_of_... https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/658/what-can-an-attacker-with-51-of-hash-power-do https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/658/what-can-an-... "An attacker that controls more than 50% of the network's computing power can, for the time that he is in control, exclude and modify the ordering of transactions. This allows him to: * Reverse transactions that he sends while he's in control Prevent some or all transactions from gaining any confirmations * Prevent some or all other generators from getting any generations The attacker can't: * Reverse other people's transactions * Prevent transactions from being sent at all (they'll show as 0/unconfirmed) * Change the number of coins generated per block * Create coins out of thin air * Send coins that never belonged to him"
- garmaine 6y ago
  That’s not what “rewrite history” is generally accepted to mean. Substituting historical transactions with alternatives, and thereby reverting all dependent transactions is rewriting history. By doing so you can invalidate any transaction, so long as you control at least one input in the ever expanding web of prior transactions.
  - colordrops 6y ago
    But that once again is only current transactions. It gets exponentially harder to interfere with transactions with each block in the past. And if you just decided to do so with arbitrary hash difficulty to make it faster, it will be very obvious and easy to reject.
    - garmaine 6y ago
      Not if you control more than half of the hashpower. Then it’s just a matter of time.

colordrops 6y ago

You are just going to state something that is blatantly false without any evidence or references? The nature of 51% attacks is pretty well known among the cryptocurrency community, and it's not hard to understand the technical aspects of it. You can't rewrite history because you don't have the private keys to the wallets you want to steal coins from. It's impossible. You can only affect transactions around the time of the attack. https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Weaknesses#Attacker_has_a_lot_of_computing_power https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Weaknesses#Attacker_has_a_lot_of_... https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/658/what-can-an-attacker-with-51-of-hash-power-do https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/658/what-can-an-... "An attacker that controls more than 50% of the network's computing power can, for the time that he is in control, exclude and modify the ordering of transactions. This allows him to: * Reverse transactions that he sends while he's in control Prevent some or all transactions from gaining any confirmations * Prevent some or all other generators from getting any generations The attacker can't: * Reverse other people's transactions * Prevent transactions from being sent at all (they'll show as 0/unconfirmed) * Change the number of coins generated per block * Create coins out of thin air * Send coins that never belonged to him"

garmaine 6y ago
That’s not what “rewrite history” is generally accepted to mean. Substituting historical transactions with alternatives, and thereby reverting all dependent transactions is rewriting history. By doing so you can invalidate any transaction, so long as you control at least one input in the ever expanding web of prior transactions.
- colordrops 6y ago
  But that once again is only current transactions. It gets exponentially harder to interfere with transactions with each block in the past. And if you just decided to do so with arbitrary hash difficulty to make it faster, it will be very obvious and easy to reject.
  - garmaine 6y ago
    Not if you control more than half of the hashpower. Then it’s just a matter of time.